Amelia Freer's Tips for a Healthy Spring

Spring is officially here and with warmer weather and crisp air comes the time for a new season revamp (yes February chocolate binge, we see you). To help you transition into a healthy new season, alongside fresh kit, to coincide with the release of her new book Nourish & Glow: The 10-Day Plan (win a copy here), nutritionist Amelia Freer has compiled her top five tips for revamping your diet.

Focus on whole foods

There are lots of articles that encourage us eat more ‘whole foods’, but I often find that people are confused about what this really means. It simply means foods that are unprocessed, single ingredients; so a fresh tomato is a whole food, whereas tomato sauce is not. Pick one processed food that you are currently eating and try to swap it for a homemade version.

Protein for breakfast

This is the most important suggestion for helping to manage your appetite throughout the day. I find if you have protein at breakfast, this cuts down on unnecessary snacking without any effort. It doesn’t have to be animal protein either, you can try plant-based sources such as nuts or seeds. I’m currently loving a big dollop of hummus at breakfast time with a pile of crunchy lettuce boats and ripe tomatoes.

No more ‘cheat’ meals

I think it’s generally unhelpful to assign a moral value to any food choice. The psychological idea of ‘cheating’ has all sorts of negative repercussions. Who are you ‘cheating’? What are you ‘cheating’ from?

It's just as important to eat for emotional and social benefits as for our physical health. So if you’re enjoying a meal out with friends or family and want to feel unrestricted in your eating, then go ahead. Call it a ‘choice’ meal if you wish. Choose a burger, a glass of wine or pudding, eat whatever you feel like. Just don’t consider it as ‘cheating’.

Mix it up

It is so easy to get stuck in a culinary rut with the chaos of everyday life. So to avoid getting bored, I recommend trying out one new recipe a week (it doesn’t need to be complicated). Enjoying a wide variety of foods is one of the best ways to boost the nutritional value of our diet, so trying out new recipes can increase the health benefits of your meals with little to no effort. Why not try my recipe for Smoked Mackerel Pâté?

There is no one size fits all

I’m currently on a mission to help people feel confident and empowered when it comes to knowing what works best for them nutritionally. There are so many different opinions out there that it’s easy to feel blinded by the sheer volume of information. What you have to realise is that what works for someone else may not necessarily work for you. The principles of healthy eating are loosely the same for all of us, Michael Pollan summed it up beautifully with ‘eat real food, mostly plants’, but the details and nuances of these are as unique as we are. The only person that can really know the best diet is you. So listen to your body and be sceptical of opinions. They’re not always right.

These are some of the key concepts that I discuss in my new book, Nourish & Glow: The 10-Day Plan. Rather than being another diet or recipe book, it is a comprehensive nutritional guidebook, exploring what it really feels like to shop, cook and eat well within the context of our own bodies. Published by Michael Joseph. £16.99.